David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :

'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)

(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia.(2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.

29 November 2011

Following on from yesterday's Walkley Awards pillory to (blog) post, and responding to a number of enquiries about our (dis)organisation at bLOGOS/HA HA, here is the first of an occasional series of office glimpses.

Today, one of our journalists at work.

detailA Person Looks At A Work Of Art/someone looks at something ...

LOGOS/HA HA

28 November 2011

bLOGOS/HA HA watched the Walkley Awards presentation on SBS last night. The most contentious decision - we noted that many in the audience of peers did not clap the acceptance speech - was for Most outstanding contribution to journalismto WikiLeaks.

This award was sponsored by Sky News, which is partially-owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. A fine irony.

Appropriately, it was announced by senior journalist and 2010 Gold Walkley winner Laurie Oakes, a past defender of WikiLeaks and someone renowned for his own reports of leaked documents.

Most outstanding contribution to journalismSponsored by Sky News

WikiLeaksThis year’s winner has shown a courageous and controversial commitment to the finest traditions of journalism: justice through transparency.

WikiLeaks applied new technology to penetrate the inner workings of government to reveal an avalanche of inconvenient truths in a global publishing coup.

Its revelations, from the way the war on terror was being waged, to diplomatic bastardry, high-level horse-trading and the interference in the domestic affairs of nations, have had an undeniable impact.

This innovation could just as easily have been developed and nurtured by any of the world’s major publishers – but it wasn’t.

Yet so many eagerly took advantage of the secret cables to create more scoops in a year than most journalists could imagine in a lifetime.

While not without flaws, the Walkley Trustees believe that by designing and constructing a means to encourage whistleblowers, WikiLeaks and its editor-in-chief Julian Assange took a brave, determined and independent stand for freedom of speech and transparency that has empowered people all over the world.And in the process, they have triggered a robust debate inside and outside the media about official secrecy, the public’s right to know, and the future of journalism.

Laurie Oakes at the Walkley Awards last year :

Oakes criticised Ms Gillard and Attorney-General Robert McClelland for their comments about WikiLeaks' release of US diplomatic cables.

"What they said was ridiculous," he said.

"To brand what the WikiLeaks site has done as illegal when there's no evidence of any breach of the law, I think is demeaning ... I think as journalists we should make that our view."

Julian Assange accepted the award on behalf of WikiLeaks. He appeared by video, from his house arrest in England, with a backdrop of the upside down and wrong way around logos of the five major financial organisations that refuse to facilitate funds to WikiLeaks.

Switched then to ABC 24 where there was a formal debate in progress : That WikiLeaks is a Power for Good

The third speaker for the affirmative was Stuart Rees, academic, author, Director of the Sydney Peace Foundation and Emeritus Professor at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney in Australia. He concluded with an extract from the once pilloried pamphleteer Daniel Defoe, from his poem A Hymn to the Pillory ( read it here ).

Exhort the justice of the landWho punish what they will not understand,Tell them he stands exalted thereFor speaking what they would not hear.

On 16 July 1703 Daniel Defoe began to serve a three-day sentence in the pillory at Charing Cross (Trafalgar Square), part of his punishment for having written the "seditious libel" of The Shortest Way with Dissenters. This satiric pamphlet had suggested that instead of passing laws against all religious Dissenters - Protestant "Nonconformists," such as Defoe - the quicker, cleaner solution would be to just kill them. Defoe's proposal was taken seriously, if not embraced, by many of the Anglican Tories in office; when everyone realized that it was a put-on, and that the anonymous author was Defoe, they flushed him from his hiding spot and took revenge for their embarrassment: a hefty fine, time in Newgate Prison, three sessions in the pillory.

detail from a much larger scene (here ) Daniel Defoe in the pillory1862 line engraving by James Charles Armytage after Eyre Crowe

Another of the many who have paid dearly for their efforts to share information/power with the people is William Tyndale. For his translation and publication of the Bible, from the Hebrew and Greek of the educated power elite to the English of the many, he had to flee England. Arrested in Brussels by an ally of the English King, and tried there on charges of heresy, he was "strangled to death while tied at the stake, and then his dead body was burned". (Ironically, it is he who coined the term scapegoat.)

William Tyndale cries out "Lord, open the King of England's eyes". Woodcut from Foxe's Book of Martyrs (1563)

26 November 2011

Some say the National Gallery of Victoria has little interest in contemporary art.

Perhaps the recent run of full page advertisements in the Weekend Age are an attempt by that institution 'to be seen to be' engaged.

This is from today's paper :

detailA Person Looks At A Work Of Art/someone looks at something ...

LOGOS/HA HA

But why does the first line of the promotional image caption say

Visitor enjoying

First : why "visitor"?Second : why "enjoying"?

What we at bLOGOS/HA HAenjoy about this image is knowing a little more about what is actually happening : knowing that the dewdrops are suspended on strings, though this is not apparent in the advertisement; knowing that the 'visitor' is actually a member of T.A.R. (Theatre of the Actors of Regard) and is not so much visiting as performing; knowing that a fuller depiction of the scene would show the actor's braces are suspending, front and back, a meta pair of dependent-arising ideograms over his naked loins; knowing, too, the cloud of thoughts that bubble forth...

23 November 2011

Princess Hijab is Paris's most elusive street artist. Striking at night with spraypaint and a marker pen, she slaps black Muslim veils on the half-naked airbrushed women — and men — of the metro's fashion adverts. She calls it "hijabisation".

Another high fashion advertisement targeted by graffiti artist Princess Hijab.Her guerrilla niqab art has been exhibited from New York to Vienna, sparking debates about feminism and fundamentalism, yet her identity remains a mystery.

11 November 2011

Those of us who subscribe to the Gregorian calendar view are observing the present date's notable numerical time sequence :MMXI.XI.XI.XI.XI.XI2011.11.11.11.11.11Year/Month/Day/Hour/Minute/Secondaka TODAY

Those of us who subscribe to other calendars may be regarding TODAY as belonging within one of the following YEARS :

The last information taken in (before a total re-assessment) was that this poster was exactly one year old/late/out of date - it being for 8 - 12 November 2010.

Later, back home, the internet tells me that this week is also NRRTWeek. This week being 7 - 11 November 2011; but this week may be any time, may be this week next year, say, or some other this week between, or... More about this soon.

bLOGOS/HA HA is interested in the history and technology of in'spection [C17: from Latin inspicere, from specere to look], therefore interested to learn the reason for this commemoration date.

World Radiography Day, November 8th, falls this year on a Tuesday, early in a week of celebrations to mark National Radiographers and Radiation Therapists Week.

This date specifically celebrates the Friday in 1895 when Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen (Roentgen is the anglicised spelling), working at the University of Wurzburg, ‘accidentally’ discovered X-rays. Meticulous and thorough, Roentgen was in the process of setting up an experiment, using a shrouded Crookes-Hittorf vacuum discharge tube, to investigate the nature of the light emanating from the discharge, when he noted small scintillations from a barium platinocyanide coated card sitting on a bench at some distance from the tube. While others were performing similar experiments at the time, it was only Roentgen who had assembled all the necessary paraphernalia in one place at one time and would have made the discovery conclusively, rather than accidentally, only minutes later. His farsighted conclusions in that one brief moment led him to return to the laboratory throughout that weekend and to continue his work in secrecy, investigating the miraculous properties of the rays that were clearly emanating through the shroud.

Within those first few days, Roentgen fleetingly witnessed a radiograph of the bones of his own hand as, testing the penetration of various materials, he passed a piece of lead through the rays and 2 weeks later he produced the now famous first recorded radiograph of his wife’s hand……….and the future of his remarkable discovery was beginning to reveal itself.

Interupting for a moment, here is a French chromolithograph from that time. From a card series imaging ways in which the new means of see-through depiction might extend the usual.Rayon-X : Mademoiselle's fiancé has sent her his photograph.

courtesy : Theatre of the Actors of Regard

His first original paper, "Über eine neue Art von Strahlen” (On A New Kind Of Rays), was published 50 days later on 28 December 1895 and, while many countries to this day still refer to “the Roentgen rays”, Roentgen himself, because of a penchant for algebra, always preferred to use the term X-rays, because he discovered them as an unknown quantum.

At this time, the week of celebration is designed to raise awareness of radiographic imaging and therapy, functions which may be taken for granted in the modern world, but in Roentgen’s day were nothing short of miraculous. We to should be constantly proud that we continue to provide our patients with a service that is almost magical in its expanding abilities to lead and guide medical care by providing a view into the mysteries within the human body and to reach into that body to attack disease. It is an opportunity to unequivocally promote awareness of our unique skills and of our irreplaceable profession, a time in which we should invite the rest of the world to recognise and celebrate that Roentgen’s legacy, and our resultant knowledge, skills and care are an essential part of modern life.

So now is the time to think on your display and how you are going to share the message with all the people - doctors, patients and public who come and go through your departments.

Be proud, celebrate our history and love what you do!

Bruce HarveyPresident AIR

Sitting in a Waiting Room, imagining the names and histories of the divisions and seasons of Time.

Sitting in a Waiting Room with a poster for the right time of the wrong year, recalling a wonderful Goons episode about a similar situation.

What follows is arguably the most famous single sequence in any Goon Show. The show is The Mysterious Punch-up-the-Conker (series 7, episode 18). About 25 minutes in the show, Bluebottle and Eccles are "in the ground floor attic" of a clock repairers. After listening to lots of timepieces ticking, chiming, cuckooing etc. for a while...

Bluebottle : What time is it Eccles?

Eccles : Err, just a minute. I, I've got it written down 'ere on a piece of paper. A nice man wrote the time down for me this morning.

Bluebottle : Ooooh, then why do you carry it around with you Eccles?

Eccles : Well, umm, if a anybody asks me the ti-ime, I ca-can show it to dem.

Bluebottle : Wait a minute Eccles, my good man...

Eccles : What is it fellow?

Bluebottle : It's writted on this bit of paper, what is eight o'clock, is writted.

Eccles : I know that my good fellow. That's right, um, when I asked the fella to write it down, it was eight o'clock.

Bluebottle : Well then. Supposing when somebody asks you the time, it isn't eight o'clock?

Eccles : Ah, den I don't show it to dem.

Bluebottle : Ooohhh...

Eccles : [Smacks lips] Yeah.

Bluebottle : Well how do you know when it's eight o'clock?

Eccles : I've got it written down on a piece of paper!

Bluebottle : Oh, I wish I could afford a piece of paper with the time written on.

01 November 2011

I've been through the desert on a horse with no nameIt felt good to be out of the rainIn the desert you can remember your name'Cause there ain't no one for to give you no painLa, la ...

The lyric is from the early 70s hit by the band America.

Americain is the name of the horse favoured to win today's Melbourne Cup.

In Melbourne it's a public holiday and just about anyone who's everyone who knows nothing about horse racing will nominate their would-be winner. Chosen by a nice name, the colour scheme of the jockey's silks, a tip from a friend or just a blind stab.

bLOGOS/HA HA this year opts via the name : Lucas Cranach, from Germany. This horse with no name is named after the German artist Lucas Cranach (1472 – 1553). This artist with no name was named after...

He was born at Kronach in upper Franconia and learned the art of drawing from his father Hans Maler (his surname meaning "painter" and denoting his profession, not his ancestry, after the manner of the time and class). His mother, with surname Hübner, died in 1491. Later, the name of his birth-place was used for his surname, another custom of the times.